GES1003/GESS1001
CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF SINGAPORE
AY2025/2026 SEMESTER 1
Instructions for the Second Commentary (10%)
Planning for Inclusive Public Housing Landscapes in Singapore
Aims of the Assignment
1. To gain an exposure to people’s views about living in public housing and/or ageing in Singapore.
2. To assess your ability to critically comment on the tensions between and/or alignments with individual and state aspirations.
What you need to do?
1. Ask either one person over 60 years old (married or single) or one person under 40 years old (either with a young family, single or in an any other type of family arrangement) the following question: What facilities, amenities or activities* would you like to see incorporated into Singapore’s public housing estates in the next 10-20 years?
Notes:
These could include features within the flat, amenities in the neighbourhood, or facilities within the wider estate.
2. Provide an ad verbatim transcription of the interviewee’s response. Your interviewee’s response should be no more than 150 words (translated into English if necessary).
Include the details of your interviewee’s gender, age, ethnicity, citizenship status, and occupation in brackets, e.g. “(female, 76 years old, Chinese, Singaporean, retired manager)”. These identifying details give context to your commentary and is not included in your 150-word count.
3. Write a 350-word commentary on the extent you think the interviewee’s response aligns with the state’s vision for public housing in Singapore (as described in the website and video you have been asked to view for Tutorial 4 (see Notes below)). You are strongly encouraged (if applicable) to highlight the ways in which interviewee’s suggestions for future changes might contradict or subtly contest state ideologies.
Notes:
1. Housing & Development Board. (n.d.). Designing for life: HDB's refreshed roadmap.
Housing & Development Board. https://www.hdb.gov.sg/about-us/news-and-publications/publications/dwellings/Designing-for-Life
2. Housing & Development Board. (n.d.). HDB's refreshed roadmap: Designing for life.
Housing & Development Board. https://www.hdb.gov.sg/about-us/hdbs-refreshed-roadmap-designing-for-life
Important, please note:
1. Your commentary must be submitted into the Turnitin folder on Canvas no later than by 5pm on 10 Oct 2025 (Friday, Week 8). Marks will be deducted for submissions later than this date.
2. The commentary should be no more than 500 words in total. There will be a penalty for exceeding the word limit by 10%.
The word count includes references. You do not need to give references for the websites mentioned in the ‘Notes’ section above. However, any other additional references must be included in the reference list.
Marking Criteria
1. Accurate understanding of how the extent to which the respondent’s response aligns with or deviates from the state’s vision for public housing in Singapore.
2. Ability to integrate power relations into the comment, e.g. clear understanding of exclusion
3. Ability to integrate geographical concepts into the comment, i.e. space, place, scale.
This is a guideline for you to understand what your marker will be looking out for. There is no rubric for this assessment.